[dhsysusbsjsi]

Easy - make mental health non-reportable to the aviation authorities. Instead, the shrink can report if they think there is an issue to public safety, as they would currently do for patients at risk of harming the public.

The problem is people think that any 'solution' to this problem needs to be perfect. "What if we never find out this guy was a problem" comes up. No. You just need to make the next system net _better_. Don't delay forward progress because the next step isn't "perfect".

[fasthands9]

Would that really solve much? If the concern is pilots are not being honest to save their jobs - it seems like they would still not be honest to a therapist if they were considering self harm. I'm sure it would just take one story of a therapist being overly cautious and reporting someone having benign issues for it to convince pilots not to talk to therapists.

It would solve the problem of "pilot needs someone to talk to about their issues with their wife", which is nice. But don't know if it solves the larger issue being discussed.

[irjustin]

> make mental health non-reportable to the aviation authorities. Instead, the shrink can report if they think there is an issue to public safety, as they would currently do for patients at risk of harming the public.

Put yourself in a pilot's shoes. Would you attend sessions if there was ANY chance of you not being able to fly? Would others? It's optional and your entire career hinges on not being grounded once. That's you, your family, and anyone else who depends on your income.

The perception of this solution is still the same as the current one - I can be grounded.

Initially it might work, but once that first guy gets grounded via the program (or maybe a few), word gets out that's what this system ends up doing - you're right back here wondering what the solution was that was so easy.

[shiroiuma]

I have a solution: pass a law that if any pilot gets grounded for mental health issues, then the airline industry (as a whole, in case his airline goes belly-up) has to continue to pay that pilot's salary until he retires.

[irjustin]

This protects the pilot pretty well, but this leaves the airline open to some pretty crazy fraud, no?

[shiroiuma]

Isn't this how it's handled in other countries when someone can't work due to medical issues? Surely they have some way of discouraging fraud, probably by making the doctor responsible or perhaps requiring multiple doctors to cross-check.

[irjustin]

It happens in the US for worker's comp, but that's if you lose an arm. Pretty hard to fake that.

Mental health, "relatively easy" to fake esp if there's a lot of money waiting for you on the other-side if you get it right.

[cjbprime]

The famous Germanwings murder-suicide had some of this in play -- the pilot's doctor had given him a letter excusing him from work, due to a probable psychotic episode, but the pilot chose not to share the letter with the airline and the doctor was forbidden by law from sharing it.